Salt Level Question

cdawson

cdawson

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Jan 6, 2003
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I'm hearing alot of conflicting answers on the amount of salt to put into a BW aquarium. Can someone please tell me, how many TEASPOONS (not tablespoons!) per 5 gallons? I've got a green spotted puffer and a peacock goby, as well as 7 silver scats. They've been fine for a long time now on 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons now, but I'm getting confused about all the different answers I see.
 
I don't measure with a spoon, I measure with a hydrometer. I keep my GSP at a specific gravity of 1.014-19. That comes out to about 2 cups of marine salt/10 gallons. Teaspoons?????
 
I have never measured in teaspoons either. I always use about 1 cup per 10 gallons of water. That would be 1/2 a cup per 5 gallons. It gets SG around 1.008. For Monos and Scats you might want to do a little bit more but currently I am only keeping Anableps, Mudskippers, Mollies, Dragonfish, Bumblebee Gobies, Archers, Figure 8 Puffers, etc. All my Monos and Scats have been acclimated up to saltwater. What size tank do you have. You do know that each of those Scats will get a foot long and look like a dinner plate? They will also need sw as adults.
 
I've used a measurement of 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons and my salt level is around 1.019. Everywhere I've gone to has told me differently but I've used this all along. The fact that no one uses this makes me weary though.
 
That level is practically SW! There's no way 1 tsp/5gal can make that specific gravity. You might want to try another hydrometer. To get that SG, I use over a CUP of salt/5gal! Are you sure it's not 1.0019? That sounds more like it.
 
Agree with Pufferpunk - there must be a reading error or measurement error with whatever device or technique is being used to measure specific gravity. One tsp per 5 gallons is undetectable by most hobby test devices.

Can you describe the way you measure and maybe we can help figure it out?
 
I use exactly 1 teaspoon every 5 gallons and it's right below the SW level. should I use cups instead?
what could be wrong with my hydrometer, I've always gotten good readings since I bought it.
 
Do you always add salt any time you're adding water? If so, the high level might be accurate, and the result of evaporation. When water evaporates, it leaves the salt behind. If you do topoffs with salted water, the overall level of salt in the volume of water will be increasing slowly over time.

1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons of water will NOT get you to 1.019. As with most things, stability is better than a specific number. Most hobbyist hydrometers will vary and have an error of +/- .01, so 1.0019 is not likely accurate either way, since the level of error is greater than the result.
 
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